April 17, 2015

Bet You Can't Make Just One...

I thought, "Let's just make one of these Steam Punk blocks and see how it goes".

As you can see, it is going very well indeed. Have you ever seen such fun block? It's different, the level of difficulty is somewhat challenging, and the results are awesome. I was having so much fun making these that hours went by before I realized it. They are most addicting.

Jenn Kingwell. I want you to remember that name. She is an Australian designer and you are going to be hearing a lot more about her in the months to come. She started out making patterns, of which Steam Punk is one. She has a bunch of other designs that are equally interesting, you might want to check them out. Moda persuaded her to design a line of fabric for them, which is due out this month. It is called Gardenvale, and I am pretty sure you will want some.

Her patterns are innovative, her fabric designs are fresh and different. She said in a Fatquarter Shop interview that she believes, as does the well known quilter Freddy Moran, that 10 fabrics are not scrappy enough--110 are better. I love the way she thinks! She is the Queen of Scrappy.

I am using a bin of black and white fabrics from my stash as well as my collection of Denyse Schmidt designs for this quilt--Hope Valley, Ansonia, Flea Market Fancy, Florence, Chicopee, Hadley and more . I have been saving her fabric forever and decided It Is Time To Use It. Those nine blocks in the photo took the better part of one day to make, and used 38 different fabrics. I know I will have to repeat some of the backgrounds, but I have stacks of colorful prints to add into this mix.

I haven't been so excited about a new project in ages, and that is saying something, because I love just about everything I work on. This one is special.

Comments

Well, isn't this block just the cat's pajamas?! I can see why it delights your adventurous soul. The enlarged picture shows how much braver you got as you made more blocks: two different "fan blade" fabrics in one block and a striped fabric for the "fan blades" in another block. Well done!

These look fantastic!! You are one busy woman!! I need to start working again on The Circle Game pattern of Jen's-I have almost half of the blocks done and they're very labor intensive. Thanks for today's inspiration

I know it ages the hell out of me but those blocks look sooooo much like the test patterns that the "television" had before the stations ( all three of them mind you) came on in the morning and when they shut off at night.